Upper Hopkins Land Management Group Newsletter Welcome to the Spring 2017 edition of the UHLMG newsletter Spring 2017 Editor: Una Allender Inside this issue: “Rewilding the Desert” - AGM and Dinner Meeting Identifying birds by call Thirty members and friends attended the recent Upper Hopkins Land Management Group Aphids, moths & IPM AGM and dinner at the Ararat Hotel Red Room. Jack Tucker was returned as chair with Birds in Country Andi Armytage Secretary and Celia Tucker Treasurer. Vice-chair is Stephen Reid and committee members are Elyjah McLeod, Kelly Gellie, Penny Hartwich, Don Rowe, Bruce GHCMA board McKay, Dominique Sparks, Jayne Drum, Peta Watson, Carole Mules and Craig Hinchliffe. appointments Woodland bird monitoring Guest speaker for the evening was wildlife ecologist Ben Holmes who works for Conserva- tion Volunteers Australia at the Little Desert Nature Lodge. Ben gave an excellent presen- Landcare News tation on ‘Rewilding the Desert’. Rewilding refers to restoring ecosystem function and proc- ess and is of great interest to ecologists and conservationists in light of the ongoing loss of Perennial Pastures Systems biodiversity. Since European settlement 130 Australian species have become extinct. Woorndoo grasslands Over 310 animals and 1,180 plants species are currently threatened. For example, bet- tongs once roamed widely but are now found only at 4 sites (3 in WA and 1 in SA). Mt Emu Creek WAP project Beyond Bolac CAG Rewilding can help conserve threatened plants, animals and ecosystems. Animals can be used to good effect to restore ecological balance. Rewilding can also create tourism op- Wimmera Biodiversity portunities. As an example, wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, have al- Seminar tered the behaviour of deer, leading to improved tree condition which in turn increased bird and beaver numbers. Habitat for water fauna was improved and more berries became SWIFFT videoconference available for bears. The introduction of a small number of wolves has had an immediate Climate Change Innovation and profound effect on the landscape. Spring photo board There is a need to demonstrate this can work in Australia. Little Desert Nature Lodge has a large fenced area and Ben plans to Rewild a suite of our most threatened fauna including: Water monitoring results “Diggers” - Mallee Fowl, Bettong, Bilby,Western Barred Bandicoot “Small predators” - Spotted Quoll, Western Diary Dates Quoll IPM Paddock Walk—Thurs Oct. 5 “Insectivores” – Numbat, Antechinus, Dunnart Tatyoon (details page 3) Woorndoo grasslands project Before re-introducing animal species a monitoring meeting—Sun Oct. 8 Woorndoo program to collect baseline data has been de- signed so anyone can participate, with more com- Woodland bird monitoring Sun plex monitoring and research to be done by scien- Oct. 22—Gum San Car Park 9am tists and students. A staged progam will see a SWIFFT video conference— trial introduction of Bettongs in 2018, more Thurs Oct. 26 (details page 7) “Diggers” added later in 2018 and “small preda- Climate Change Innovation tors” reintroduced in 2019. Wildlife interpretation meetings—Oct 9 Ballarat, Oct 18 and breeding facilities are being set up with rede- Horsham (details page 7) velopment of the lodge planned to make the pro- ject sustainable in the long term. “Ribbons of History” - Thursday Nov. 2nd 1.30pm. (details page 4) Jack Tucker (L) & Ben Holmes checking one of our new Reconyx cameras. (Photo Una Allender) Upper Hopkins LMG still has some 1:1 funding available for Gorse New website: www.uhlmg.com.au control work. Contact Una or www.facebook.com/UHLMG Celia if you are interested. Please help us to cut costs and reduce our impact on the environment. Nominate to receive your next newsletter via email (with color photos) rather than on paper (black & white). Simply send an email with your name and a request to add your details to our distribution list. Address your email to: [email protected] ` The Upper Hopkins Land Management Group is grateful to the Glenelg Hopkins CMA and the Victorian Government DELWP & DEDJTR for their support of group activities and the production of this newsletter. Identifying Birds by Call By David Nichols, Glenelg Hopkins CMA Many people become interested in bird watching because of the sheer beauty and variety of the birds in our region. For a small proportion, the next step they take along the ‘twitcher’ path, is to start recording their bird sightings from time to time, and from place to place. At this point, many bird watchers find it useful to start learning some of the calls of the birds they are watching. Learning bird calls is the most useful method of identifying birds for several reasons, mainly because you can often hear a lot more birds then you can see. This is especially the case for bush land settings where birds are often obscured by the surrounding vegetation. You can often only see in one direc- tion until the first blockage of line of sight. It can also be diffi- cult to see birds on cloudy and windy days. However you can always hear the birds that are calling in the bush despite which way you are looking and blockages to your line of sight. Learning bird calls can seem daunting at first, however there are a few strategies to help the process. Firstly, it is easier to try and learn a handful of calls at first rather than a lot. Once you have mastered a few, you can move onto others. Whether the birds are common or rare, some calls are a lot easier to learn than others. Spent your time trying to learn some of the calls of more common birds that are more distinctive or easier to pick. Some of the more common but harder calls (eg Su- perb Fairywren and New Holland Honeyeater) will come to you over time. The trick when trying to learn a call is to find a ‘connection’ to the call, find something that resonates with you either the rhythm, pitch, sound or word. Some calls you can associate with normal words, for example the Spotted Pardalote – “miss piggy, miss piggy”, White-plumed honeyeater – chick-a wee, chick-a-wee” or the White-eared Honeyeater – “pretty boy, pretty boy”. If you can find some connection it will be easier to remember. With this in mind, and with spring upon us, there are a number of birds that will be calling in our farmland and bush land areas in the coming months and have a distinctive call. These I be- lieve are a good place to start for learning calls, and include the following birds: Spotted and Striated Pardalotes Horsefield’s and Shining Bronze Cuckoos From top: Musk Duck with a yummy lunch; Silver Eye; Spotted White-eared and White-plumed Honeyeaters Pardalote. (Photos: Hannah Nichols) Rufous and Golden Whistlers White-throated Treecreeper Below: Brolga (Photo: Dave Nichols) Restless Flycatcher You can practice learning some of these calls by referring to freely available apps and online sites. Good bird apps to pur- chase are the following; Guide to Birds of Australia – Michael Morcombe and David Stewart Birds of Australia – Pizzey and Knight The ‘website www.xenocanto.org has thousands of recordings to listen to free of charge. Perhaps the easiest and cheapest way to get started is to go to the ‘Learning Your First 20 Birds’ file in the Woodland Birds area of the Glenelg Hopkins CMA website. Otherwise you can obtain a copy of this file from Una Allender, Celia Tucker or Dave Nichols. 2 The Upper Hopkins Land Management Group’s Woodland Bird Monitoring program is supported by the Glenelg Hopkins CMA through funding from the Australian Government’s Na- tional Landcare Programme. Aphids, Moths and IPM Birds in Country By Jayne Drum & Una Allender, UHLMG By David Nichols, Glenelg Hopkins CMA Glenelg Hopkins CMA have released a new free bird app Russian Wheat Aphid and Diamond Back Moth will be the which features both calls and indigenous knowledge. topics covered in a Paddock Talk on Thursday 5th October with Paul Horne & Jessica Page from IPM Technologies. Part-parti Mirring-yi (Birds in Country) is a new app featuring 10.30am to 12pm Aboriginal bird knowledge of the languages/dialects of South West Victoria. Although these languages are no longer spo- Anyone interested attending this session and learning more ken, language revival is underway through education activities about Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is very welcome. in schools and communities in the region, delivered by the The paddock for the talk is located on the intersection of the local Laka Gunditj Language Program— Rossbridge–Streatham Road and Rockies Hill Road, Tatyoon. http://www.vaclang.org.au/projects/gunditjmara.html. This app has been created as a tool for learning about lan- Paul and Jessica will lead a discussion on identification, guage, culture and the natural environment. It is clear that monitoring and control strategies for Russian Wheat Aphid in woodland birds were used by Aboriginal people of the region cereal crops and Diamond Back Moth in canola. People for food, as well as their feathers being used for ornamenta- attending will also hear about the latest results from the Upper tion and decoration. Woodland birds feature in local astron- Hopkins Land Management Group’s Heliothis trap sites, and omy and mythology, and their calls, presence or behaviours have an opportunity to ask questions about anything IPM. indicated weather conditions, good or bad news and embod- ied cultural and spiritual power. All of the language groups in Heliothis traps have been set up in pairs to monitor both the region have woodland birds as significant totems, or moie- armigera and punctigera species. The traps are located at ties. Many Aboriginal people in the region continue to associ- Willaura, Willaura North, Yalla-Y-Poora, Ballyrogan, Tatyoon ate meteorological events, death, danger, shape-shifting and and Wickliffe (punctigera only) and will be monitored weekly unexplained phenomena with birds and their behaviour.